Golf clubs of the type known as irons

ABSTRACT

Golf clubs of the type known as &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;irons,&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; wherein the torque resulting from striking golf balls with the clubs is reduced, wherein the length of the club head is reduced, wherein the club head is weighted at its center, wherein the shaft is close to the heaviest weight concentration of the club, wherein the hitting face of the club occupies the entire front side of the club to eliminate erratic shots off the heel or toe of the club, wherein reduced torque results in proper hitting face position to reduce side spin on the ball.

United States Patent [191 Cosby GOLF CLUBS OF THE TYPE KNOWN AS IRONS[76] Inventor: Floyd M. Cosby, 301 Jackson St.,

Rosenberg, Tex. 77469 [22] Filed: Nov. 29, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 310,429

Related U.S. Application Data [63] Continuation-in-part of Ser. No.95,242, Dec. 4,

1970, abandoned.

[52] U.S. Cl. 273/167 F [51] Int. Cl A63b 53/04 [58] Field of Search273/77 R, 80 C, 167-l75 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS1,550,501 8/1925 Byrne 273/167 G 2,087,685 7/1937 Hackney... 273/167 F2,683,036 7/1954 Klein 273/167 G 3,059,926 10/1962 Johnstone 273/169 XDl64,597 9/1951 Penna 273/167 D X D179,092 10/1956 Pavlis 273/169 UX 1 1Jan.7, 1975 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 29,603 12/1913 Great Britain273/169 6,682 4/1891 Great Britain t 273/80 C 4,516 3/1894 GreatBritain...... 1. 273/167 F 20,623 9/1904 Great Britain 273/169 414,5168/1934 Great Britain 273/169 Primary Examiner-Richard J. Apley Attorney,Agent, or Firm-Carl B. Fox, Jr.

[5 7] ABSTRACT Golf clubs of the type known as irons, wherein the torqueresulting from striking golf balls with the clubs is reduced, whereinthe length of the club head is reduced, wherein the club head isweighted at its center, wherein the shaft is close to the heaviestweight concentration of the club, wherein the hitting face of the cluboccupies the entire front side of the club to eliminate erratic shotsoff the heel or toe of the club, wherein reduced torque results inproper hitting face position to reduce side spin on the ball.

2 Claims, 4 Drawing lFigures REFERENCE TO EARLIER FILED APPLICATIONSThis application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No.95,242, filed Dec. 4, 1970 by the same applicant and entitled Golf Ironsand Woods, and now abandoned.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION As the iron golf club of theform presently used evolved from the old form of iron club, theevolution being caused because of improvements to golf balls andincreased weight of golf balls, club makers maintained the same lengthof the club head and widened the club head more toward the toe, whilemaintaining the heel configuration and the shaft position substantiallythe same. This forced the balance point, or heaviest weightconcentration, of the club head toward the toe of the club head, and ithas remained there up to the present time. This evolution to a longerclub head and the placement of weight toward the toe of the club headcauses increased leverage of the shaft when a ball is struck, and causestorque which reduces a players control of the head of the iron club.

A golf club is a driving tool, i.e., like a hammer, and if a hammer weremade with the heaviest weight concentration as far from the axis of thehandleas has been done with golf clubs, it would be very difficult todrive a nail with the hammer.

The more balanced position of the shaft with respect to the weightconcentration of the club head results in keeping the face of the clubsquare at the time of impact with the ball. Therefore, according to thisinvention, not only is torque caused by ball impact reduced, but torquecaused by imbalance of the club head is also reduced.

According to the invention, torque on the shaft resulting from impact ofthe ball with the club head is re duced by reducing leverage tending totwist the shaft as much as possible by moving the shaft closer to thecenter of weight concentration of the club head. The balance of the clubhead is altered by placing as much of the club head weight as possible.at the center of the club head. The movement of the shaft position to aposition closer to the heaviest weight concentration not only makes theclub head shorter, but also reduces torque on the shaft caused by theweight of the club head itself. According to the invention, theproduction of side spin on the ball is reduced because of theimprovements to the torque problem.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear from thefollowing detailed description of a preferred embodiment of apparatusaccording to the invention, reference during the description being madeto the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side perspective view ofan iron golf club, taken perpendicular to the front or hitting face ofthe club head.

FIG. 2 is a partial top view of the club shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an elevational view taken toward the heel of the club shown inFIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a side elevation of the back of the club shown in FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings indetail, the club head 10 has a flat inclined hitting face 11 whichextends over the entire front side of the club head. The top edge 12 ofthe club head is preferably either flat or slightly uniformly convexlyrounded, but may be of other more or less symmetrical form. The backside of the club head is thickened and weighted by a rounded horizontalprojecting ridge 13 along its bottom edge and by a rounded verticalprojecting ridge 14 at its center, respectively, as is best seen in FIG.4, in order that the weight distribution of the club head is balancedwith the center of I gravity or weight concentration being disposedalong a plane at its center perpendicular to the center of the hittingface. The vertical height of the head is substan' tially uniformfrom'the heel to the toe of the club head.

The shaft 15 is attached to the club head at a hosel disposed in back ofthe hitting face which extends in front of the shaft, and at the heelend of the club head. The hosel 16 is formed upwardly integrally withthe club head and extends downwardly and curves to merge with formation13 as shown in FIG. 4. The hosel may terminate closer to the top edge ofthe club head than shown, or may be flush with the top edge of thehitting face, if desired.

Because of rules imposed by professional golfing associations, the heelend of the club head must be straight and without any protrudingformation. The club shown in the drawings fully complies with thisrequirement. The angle of the shaft with the bottom flat surface 18 ofthe club head is according to the association rules required to be anangle of about 54 degrees. The club complies with this requirement.

The angle of the hitting face with the ground, with bottom edge 18 ofthe club head. placed flat upon the ground, will vary depending upon theloft of the club, iron clubs being numbered from the l iron, with leastloft, to the 9-iron, with greatest loft.

The length of the club head from heel to toe of conventional iron golfclubs currently in use is from about four inches to about four andone-half inches. Although the length of the hitting face of the clubsherein disclosed is no shorter than in conventional clubs, the overalllength of the club head is reduced to from about three inches to aboutthree and one-half inches, or from one-half inch to one and one-halfinches shorter. Since the length of the hitting face of the hereindisclosed club is relatively longer, it is easier to hit the ball withthis club than with conventional clubs.

Because of the shaft position and the shortening of the club head, thetorque produced upon hitting a ball at any point of the hitting face isgreatly reduced. The reduction of the distance from the ball impactposition to the shaft axis may be as much as three-fourths inch, and thetorque produced by the ball impact is correspondingly reduced. With aconventional club, the farthest distance from the shaft axis to a ballimpact point at the extreme toe end of the hitting face will be approximately four and one-half inches. The distance from the shaft axisto the center of the hitting face will be about two and one-half inches.With the herein disclosed clubs, the maximum distance from the shaftaxis to the toe end of the hitting face will be about three and one-halfinches while the distance from the shaft axis to the center of thehitting face will be about one and three-fourths inches. Therefore, theleverage radius is reduced by about three-fourths inch regardless ofwhat portion of the hitting face has impact with the ball. This changein club design greatly reduces the torque produced on the shaft by ballimpact and reduces twisting resulting therefrom.

The above described reduction in twisting torque results because of theshortening of the club head and the movement of the shaft to behind theheel end of the hitting face. In conventional clubs, the hitting face isentirely toward the toe end of the club head from the shaft, and theshaft protrudes forwardly of the hitting face. The balanced design ofthe club head further reduces torque because the club head weight isconcentrated behind the center of the hitting face.

Because of the reduction of torque described above, the hitting face ofthe club head can be better controlled by a golfer to squarely strikethe ball. This results in elimination of raking of the hitting faceacross the ball, this being caused by angularity of the hitting facecaused by the torque problem herein discussed, i.e., so-called openingof the club face. The concentration of the club head weight behind thecenter of the hitting face resulting from formation 13 results in betterclub head speed and better impact and spin on the ball so that the ballflys faster and farther, and is less affected by wind. The repositioningof the shaft augments this result. The weight of the club head and theshaft driving force are centered directly behind the ball. There is notendency to allow the face of the club to lay open and to drag the faceof the club more quickly.

With the new pivot point of the club head around the shaft, the clubhead swings squarely into the ball and drives it straight down thefairway. Because the shaft is from three-fourths inch to one inch closerto the heaviest weight concentration in the head of the club, torque ortwisting about the shaft is reduced to almost nothing. Longer leverageon the shaft resulting from the conventional longer-faced clubs isreduced.

While the clubs have a shorter club head length from heel to toe, thereis a larger hitting face than in a standard club because all of the faceof this club is hitting face. The flat hitting face position resultingfrom reduced shaft torque is much less likely to put side spin on theball, and will produce straight hits from the club from almost any pointof the hitting face that comes into contact with the ball. The fact thatthe hitting face covers the entire front side of the club head willeliminate uncontrollable hits off of the heel or toe of the club head.No matter what part of the hitting face comes into contact with theball, the ball will be hit harder and straighter because all of theweight of the club head is centered and compressed into a more compactclub head so that whether a player makes contact with the ball at theheel, center or toe of the hitting face, there is more solid impact onthe ball than is possible with a regular club.

As has been mentioned. the dimension from heel to toe of the club headis preferably about three to three and one-half inches. The distancefrom the top to the bottom of the hitting face may vary from about oneand one-fourth inches to two inches, in a club of preferred form. Thebottom edge of the hitting face will preferably be about two andone-half inches. The thickening of the club head at the back at thecenter and along the bottom edge of the back may be such as to achievethe same weight as has been present in conventional clubs. The weight ofthe club head will be symmetrically disposed about a line or planeperpendicularly from the center of the hitting face to the center of therear of the club head.

While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been shown in thedrawings and described, many modifications thereof may be made by aperson skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of theinvention, and it is intended to protect by Letters Patent all forms ofthe invention falling within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. Golf club of the type referred to as an iron, comprising ahorizontally elongate club head having the front side thereof completelyflat to form a hitting face over its entire area whereby a golf ball maybe struck at any point thereof without angular deflection of the golfball, said hitting face having a loft angle of conventional angularinclination for an iron-type club head, one end of said club head beingangularly inclined upwardly and outwardly and forming the heel of theclub head, the other end of said club head forming the toe of said clubhead, the reverse side of said club head having disposed thereon auniformly thickened, integral, and continuous projecting ridge, saidprojecting ridge being located (a) coextensively along the heel end andcompletely within the boundary edge of said heel end; (b) coextensivelyalong the lower edge of said reverse side from the heel end to the toeend; and (c) vertically along the center of said reverse side toapproximately the upper edge of the club head in order to distribute theweight of the club head symmetrically about a plane perpendicular to thecenter of the hitting face and to adjust the horizontal center ofgravity of said club head to its horizontal center whereby said clubhead will be less likely to twist about vertically directed axes uponstriking golf balls at random points of said hitting face, the upper andlower edges of said club head and of said hitting face beingsubstantially parallel whereby the heel and toe portions of said clubhead are of substantially the same weight, said thickened portion alongsaid heel at said reverse side of said club head forming a hosel, ashaft having its lower end fixed in said hosel, and further having thelength of said club head from the toe to heel ends being approximatelythree to three and one-half inches and with the maximum distance of theshaft axis to the center of the hitting face being approximately one andthree-quarters inches in order to further reduce the torque producedrespect to the bottom of said club head means.

1. Golf club of the type referred to as an iron, comprising ahorizOntally elongate club head having the front side thereof completelyflat to form a hitting face over its entire area whereby a golf ball maybe struck at any point thereof without angular deflection of the golfball, said hitting face having a loft angle of conventional angularinclination for an iron-type club head, one end of said club head beingangularly inclined upwardly and outwardly and forming the heel of theclub head, the other end of said club head forming the toe of said clubhead, the reverse side of said club head having disposed thereon auniformly thickened, integral, and continuous projecting ridge, saidprojecting ridge being located (a) coextensively along the heel end andcompletely within the boundary edge of said heel end; (b) coextensivelyalong the lower edge of said reverse side from the heel end to the toeend; and (c) vertically along the center of said reverse side toapproximately the upper edge of the club head in order to distribute theweight of the club head symmetrically about a plane perpendicular to thecenter of the hitting face and to adjust the horizontal center ofgravity of said club head to its horizontal center whereby said clubhead will be less likely to twist about vertically directed axes uponstriking golf balls at random points of said hitting face, the upper andlower edges of said club head and of said hitting face beingsubstantially parallel whereby the heel and toe portions of said clubhead are of substantially the same weight, said thickened portion alongsaid heel at said reverse side of said club head forming a hosel, ashaft having its lower end fixed in said hosel, and further having thelength of said club head from the toe to heel ends being approximatelythree to three and onehalf inches and with the maximum distance of theshaft axis to the center of the hitting face being approximately one andthreequarters inches in order to further reduce the torque produced onthe shaft by ball impact.
 2. The combination of claim 1, said shaftmeans being disposed at an angle of approximately 54* with respect tothe bottom of said club head means.